This Sorrowful Life
by TheWalkingGlee
Summary: AU: Jake and Marley try to survive in a zombie apocalypse world, filled with loss, sadness, and fear. Along the way, they meet certain people who prove that even in the most depressing times, there always can be a sliver of hope.
1. Chapter 1

**Hey guys! I'm back with a new Jarley multi-chaptered fic! This one was suggested to me by an anon on tumblr, and also inspired by my love of The Walking Dead. I know I've written a drabble before about Jake and Marley living in a zombie apocalypse world, but this will be much different. Hope you all enjoy!**

_Title is from the name of a TWD episode (Season 3 episode 15: This Sorrowful Life)_

* * *

Marley Rose knew something strange was going on the second she glanced outside the window of her apartment. It was almost ten o'clock in the morning, and the usual hustle and bustle of New York City was replaced with an eerie silence.

"Kitty," Marley called to her roommate. She expected her best friend to be buried under the multiple layers of blankets, sleeping soundly. However, when Marley lifted up the covers, Kitty wasn't there. Not thinking much of it-Kitty disappeared all the time and always came back before dark-Marley zipped up her winter coat and ventured out onto the street, the cold February air nipping her exposed skin as she walked.

Things got even stranger when Marley turned the corner. In all her life of knowing about Manhattan, and how busy it always was, Marley had never _ever_ heard about Times Square being completely empty. In the past year of living in the city, Marley had always disliked the crowdedness of Times Square, so she was hardly thrilled when the only apartment she could afford was right in the heart of it. But now, the thousands of people and cars that normally occupied the busy streets daily were all gone.

Sensing something was seriously wrong, Marley frantically searched the deserted streets, desperate to find somebody.

"Is anyone here?" She yelled.

"H-Help," Marley heard someone faintly mumble closeby. "He-elp."

Marley ran into the nearest alley and found a woman lying on the concrete, clutching her side.

"Oh my god," Marley said, putting a hand to her mouth in shock. "What happened? Were you robbed?"

The woman tried to answer, but no words came out. She broke into a loud coughing fit. Marley reached for her phone to dial 911, but the woman quickly grasped her arm.

"No," she wheezed.

"Please, let me help you," Marley begged. The woman just shook her head.

"No use," she said between coughs. "Leave while you can."

"What are you talking about?" Marley asked, growing more confused by the second.

The woman didn't say a word. Instead, she moved her hand away from her side, revealing a very deep wound. "Got bit," she whispered before coughing violently.

Marley started to feel dizzy. The sight of blood had always made her uncomfortable. "Bit?" she repeated. "By what?"

But the mysterious woman didn't get to answer her. She took one last deep breath before her eyes glazed over and her hands dropped on either side of her.

"No no no no no." Marley shook the woman's shoulders. "Please don't be dead." But it was no use. She was gone.

Marley ran out of the alley back onto the main street. She dug her phone out of her coat pocket and called Kitty. "Pick up, pick up, pick," she said, feeling tears dot her eyes. She had never felt so alone before. The call went straight to voicemail, and Marley almost flung her phone onto the pavement out of frustration. She proceeded to called her mom, but no luck there either. Nobody was answering their phones. Marley decided to go to her last resort and call 911. _Someone_ had to pick up. Her phone rang and rang and rang for what seemed like forever. She counted 34 rings before she gave up. _Why wasn't 911 working? This was an emergency._

Marley kept walking down the deserted streets, searching for any signs of life. It seemed like everyone had just dropped everything and ran, judging by all the debris and garbage that littered the ground. Tears were now streaming down her cheeks. She honestly didn't know what to do, and on top of that, her best friend was still missing. Marley wanted to believe that everything was okay, and that maybe everyone in the city was indoors for whatever reason, but she couldn't shake the feeling that something was majorly wrong. _This wasn't normal._

Marley turned a corner and her spirits immediately soared. Up ahead, someone was leaning over something else-Marley couldn't tell what. "Hey!" she shouted running towards the person. Finally someone could tell her what was going on!

"Hey!" Marley ran right up to the person. _Why wasn't he listening to her?_ Finally whoever it was turned around and Marley stopped dead in her tracks. _That wasn't a person._

Marley couldn't scream. She was too stunned._ What was this thing?_ The decaying creature limped rather fastly towards Marley, and she tried to run away, but it was like her feet were glued to the ground. She wanted to move, but she was so much in shock, her body wasn't cooperating with her head.

Right as the creature was about to grab Marley, a loud _bang_ filled the air. The thing fell to the ground, blood pouring out of its head. Marley looked over to her left and saw a boy around her age holding a rather large gun.

"What the hell is going on?" Marley asked the boy. "What was that thing?"

The boy looked down at the mangled body on the ground before gazing back at her. "Didn't you get the memo?" he said. "The world just ended."

* * *

**Like it so far? I literally have no idea whatsoever the direction I want to take this in, but I guess I'll just wing it and see how it goes. In true Walking Dead fashion, I will not use the word 'Zombie' and I will try to use the word "Walker" as little as possible. Got any cool names to call zombies? Please let me know! Hope you all stick with me on this; I promise I'll update soon! (and yes the boy in the last part is Jake). Talk to you guys later! :)**


	2. Chapter 2

"Who are you?" Marley asked when the boy finally put his gun down.

"My name's Jake. Jake Puckerman."

"Marley Rose."

"Pretty," Jake half-smiled.

Marley felt herself blush. "Thanks."

Jake's face then became serious again. "We're you with anyone else?"

"No, but my best friend is missing. I need to find her. She-" A deep moan caused Marley to scream in surprise. She turned around and saw another one of those whatever-those-creepy-things-are head towards them.

"We have to go." Jake grabbed Marley's sleeve and pulled her away. They ducked into another alleyway that seemed clear.

"Please tell me what the hell is going on!" Marley shouted. Jake quickly put his hand to her mouth.

"Be quiet," he ordered. "They're attracted to noise."

"Who is 'they'?" Marley stomped her foot in frustration. "What are those things?"

"The biters," Jake said. "The dead that come back to life."

"That's impossible," Marley whispered, shaking her head. "But where did everyone go?"

"I'm sure a lot of people were bit and then turned, but most people probably either went into hiding, or fled the area. It's best not to be in a big city. That's where most of the biters are."

"How did it all start?"

Jake shrugged. "I don't know."

"What were you even doing out here?" Marley asked. "Shouldn't you be hiding someplace safe?"

"I'm kind of the go-out-and-find-stuff person in my group," Jake explained. "You know, food, clothes, anything useful."

"You have a group?"

"Well, not really a group. Just me and my friend Ryder. We had more, but…" Jake trailed off, not wanting to go further into detail.

Marley nodded understandingly. "Where are you guys staying?"

"Some old abandoned house not too far from here. We wanted to be away from all the biters but close to food and clothing sources."

"Smart," Marley muttered. "So, would you guys mind if I joined your 'group'?"

"Yeah, definitely. We need as many people as possible. Now come on. We need to get back." Jake grabbed Marley's hand and together they ran as silently and quickly as possible back to their shelter. As Jake's hand strongly gripped her's, Marley couldn't help the blush that started to grow on her cheeks. She had to admit, Jake was incredibly cute, but she couldn't be thinking of that at a time like this. She barely knew what was even going on, but she did know that things were going to be a whole lot different than they used to be.

* * *

"So how come nobody has been answering their phones?" Marley asked skeptically as she and Jake made their way to his and Ryder's place.

"Power lines are down, and I'm pretty sure any kind of service was shut off. This outbreak did a lot more damage than you think. We're basically cut off from the rest of the world."

"How do you know all this?"

"We had a radio that was broadcasting an emergency announcement every five minutes," Jake said. "The batteries on the damn thing ran out yesterday, so we've been out of luck."

"Wait, how long has this been going on?"

"Almost a week, I think. Where have _you_ been?"

"Sick in bed," Marley said. "I was finally feeling better today, so I went outside. But, you know…"

"And you said your friend is missing, right?"

"Yeah." Marley blinked back tears. "I have no idea where she could be."

"We'll find her," Jake assured, squeezing her hand. Marley swore she felt some sort of spark.

* * *

"Dude, wake up." Jake took his jacket off and threw it on top of his friend who was sleeping on the old, tattered couch. Marley followed Jake inside the house, taking in her surroundings.

"Did you find food?" Ryder asked sleepily, rubbing his tired eyes.

"Nope, even better." Jake ushered Marley in.

Ryder's eyes immediately widened into saucers. "Well hello there," he grinned. "I'm Ryder."

Jake rolled his eyes.

"I'm Marley," she giggled.

"Well, make yourself at home," Jake said. There's an extra room you can sleep in, but there's only one bathroom."

"Oh, that's fine. I don't care. Sharing a bathroom with Kitty is probably much worse. She would always take forever."

"Who's Kitty?" Ryder asked.

Marley smiled sadly. "She's my best friend. I woke up this morning and she was gone."

"I'm sorry," Ryder mumbled.

"Don't be. I'll find her."

"Marley, I don't think-"

"We'll find her," Jake cut him off.

Yeah," Ryder said, not too convinced. "Anyways, are you in school or something?"

"Yeah, I go to NYU," Marley said. "And you?"

"Juilliard," Jake answered. "For dance."

"And I'm saving up money to afford college," Ryder said. "But I guess none of that matters anymore."

"You don't think things will ever go back to normal?" Marley asked, suddenly realizing how real this really was.

"I mean, I doubt it. Unless someone finds a cure that will stop people from turning," Ryder said.

"Do you think everywhere in the world is like this?" Marley asked.

The boys shrugged. "Let's hope not," Jake said. "Hopefully someone in some other country is coming up with some sort of cure as we speak and this will all be over soon."

"Yeah," Marley said, unconvinced. Deep down in her heart, she knew things would never be the same again.

* * *

**Yes, I know this chapter was short, but I'm still kind of introducing the story, but the next chapter will definitely be longer. Hope you all like this story so far :)**


	3. Chapter 3

**Sorry for the long wait! Now that the holidays are over, there definitely will be faster updates. Hope you enjoy this chapter!**

* * *

Jake watched from afar as Marley slept on the dirty old couch peacefully, wondering how the hell she could possibly sleep so soundly at a time like this. For the past week, he had barely gotten a wink of sleep from all the paranoia.

"Doing okay?" Ryder asked.

Jake took his eyes off Marley. "Yeah, man."

Ryder took a deep breath and sat next to his friend. "You know we can't stay here forever, right? Once more of those biters come, this place will be overrun. We should make a plan for when that happens."

"Do you honestly think it will get to that point?" Jake asked. "Shouldn't the government, or the army, or whatever be taking care of all this?"

"For all we know, everything's wiped out. We're all on our own."

"I can't believe this is happening," Jake said, running a hand through his short hair.

"Yeah, I know." Ryder nodded sadly. "So what are we going to do about the girl?"

"Marley?"

"Yeah."

"She comes with us," Jake said without hesitation. "There's no way we could leave her."

"Dude, what if she slows us down?"

"We're not leaving her," Jake repeated sternly.

"Well you're going to have to tell her that there's no way in hell she's finding her friend."

"You don't know that," Jake said. "I didn't think I'd ever see another living person again since this thing started, and then somehow I found her. She was scared and alone. I feel like I need to make sure she's always safe, you know?"

"Dude, you've known her one day and you're already in love with her," Ryder snickered.

Jake rolled his eyes. "I'm _not_."

Ryder just laughed in response.

* * *

Marley was back in her hometown, Lima, Ohio. She could clearly see the multiple identical brick houses and the tall, luscious trees that made up her neighborhood. Everything was peaceful and quiet as Marley walked towards her old house. Up ahead, she could make out a blurry figure. The closer she got, the clearer it became. "Mom!" she cried out in relief when she reached her house. "What's going on? Where is everybody?"

Marley's mother reached out and hugged her daughter. "I'm so glad you're here," she said. "I've been looking for you."

Out of the corner of her eye, Marley spotted something walking towards them. Only it wasn't walking. It was more like limping. And it was making noises. "Mom!" she yelled. "Watch out!"

But it was too late. The disfigured creature lunged forward and grabbed onto her mom, sinking its rotting teeth into her neck.

"Mom!" Marley cried, stepping back. Her vision started to blur, and suddenly, all she could see was red. There was so much blood. Once the creature was done with her mom, it made its way towards Marley, ready to attack. It came closer, and closer, and closer, and-

Marley jumped up from the couch, her eyes popping opened as she screamed in agony. She screamed and screamed until Jake and Ryder ran towards her.

"No!" she screeched, mistaking them as the things that killed her mother, as she was still very disoriented. "Get away from me!"

Jake took a seat on the couch and calmly rubbed her back. "I'm not going to hurt you," he said soothingly. "It was just a nightmare."

Marley looked around the room, her senses finally coming into place. "I-I'm sorry," she said, suddenly feeling embarrassed.

"It's okay," Jake assured. "I have nightmares about it too."

"It was my mom," Marley sniffled, using her sleeve as a tissue. She then realized that the clothes she was wearing were the only clothes she had.

"Did they get her?" Jake asked.

Marley wiped away another tear. "Yeah. A-And I'm sure it wasn't even a dream. It probably actually happened. She's probably dead right now."

"Don't think like that," Jake said. "I have nightmares just like yours about my mom and my brother Puck, but I still have hope that wherever they are, they're safe."

Marley nodded. "You're right."

Ryder cleared his throat in attempt to get Jake and Marley's attention. "Um, guys, I hate to be a buzzkill, but I think Marley's screaming attracted some of the biters."

The two of them joined Ryder in his spot looking out the window. Sure enough, three of them were headed towards the house.

"Crap," Jake cursed under his breath. "Hand me a knife."

Ryder walked to the kitchen as quietly as possible and took a large cutting knife out of the drawer, passing it to Jake and taking another one for himself.

"I thought you had guns," Marley said, eyeing the knives.

"Like I said earlier, any loud noise attracts them. If I fire my gun, any biter within miles will hear it," Jake said. He opened the front door and waited for them to get closer.

"So you're going to stab them?" Marley asked, her voice shaky. She still wasn't used to the whole killing thing.

"Yep. Right in the brain," Ryder said.

"Stay here," Jake instructed her. "Just watch how we do it."

"O-Okay."

"In three, two, one." And just like that, Jake and Ryder ran towards the biters, plunging their knives through their heads as if it was the easiest thing in the world.

"And that's how it's done!" Ryder high-fived Jake. "Dude, that gave me a major adrenaline rush!"

"I bet," Jake laughed.

"Are you guys serious?" Marley said, getting over the initial shock of watching the two boys stab living-well, nonliving, things in the head. "That was _fun_ to you?"

Ryder shrugged. "You gotta do what you gotta do."

"You get used to it," Jake added. "It gets easier every time."

"I don't think I could ever do that," Marley said, still staring at them in disbelief.

"Well you're going to have to sometime," Jake said, handing her his bloody knife. "Better practice now."


	4. Chapter 4

"Look, I can barely chop up strawberries without cutting myself with a knife. There is no way I can use one to _kill_ those things," Marley said in exasperation.

"Well you're going to have to," Ryder said, clearly annoyed. "Unless you want to be eaten."

Marley's eyes widened for a split second. "Fine," she grumbled.

Jake placed his knife in her hands. "Just get a feel for it first, okay?"

Marley held on to the handle of it as if it were on fire. "I-I really can't."

Ryder put his hands up in frustration. "Listen, Marley, you really need to toughen up. This isn't a game. This is our life now. This is how we need to deal with things now. You need to-"

"Ryder!" Jake interrupted, his voice rising in anger. "Just stop."

"I'm not going to let her get us killed," Ryder grumbled before retreating to his room.

"I'm sorry," Jake said awkwardly after a couple seconds of silence.

"No, I deserved it," Marley mumbled quietly, taking a seat on the couch. "I'm being a baby about it."

Jake sighed and joined her. "You're not," he said sincerely. "This is scary. Nobody blames you for not knowing what to do."

Marley let out a snort. "Ryder sure does."

"Ryder can be a bit of an asshole sometimes, but he's really just as scared as you are. He had to watch his whole family get eaten by the biters before escaping."

Marley lowered her head. "I didn't know," she whispered.

"Well, now you do." Jake grabbed her hand and stood up, bringing her up with him. "Now let's try this again," he said, handing her his knife.

Marley took in a deep breath. "Okay," she said as she exhaled, gripping the knife. She followed Jake outside the house where the three rotting corpses laid.

"You can practice on these guys," Jake said. "And remember, always go for the brain. That's what kills them."

Marley nodded and kneeled over one of the biters. Her hand trembled as she held the knife over its head.

"Don't think, just do," Jake said. "You have to be quick."

Marley took one last deep breath before forcing the knife through the biter's already sliced head.

"Nice!" Jake cheered, high-fiving her.

"Really?"

"Well, considering it's your first time killing one, yeah, definitely. We'll keep practicing, though."

"Sounds good," she said, trying to hide the blush blooming on her cheeks. It wasn't everyday that a cute boy complimented her on her newfound knife skills.

"Well, um, I should probably go cool Ryder off," Jake said after a minute of awkward silence.

Marley shook her head. "No, let me. I should be on good terms with him if we're all going to work together, you know?"

"Okay, yeah. I'll go make something to eat," Jake said before walking back inside.

Marley stood over the mangled body of the former human for another minute. She felt tears suddenly rush to her eyes. This used to be a person. A living, breathing person, who probably had a job, and maybe even kids. This person had their whole life ahead of them. "I'm sorry," she said tearfully, then walked back inside.

* * *

Marley softly knocked on Ryder's door. "Can I please come in?" she asked.

"Whatever," she heard Ryder reply back. She slowly opened the door and saw him on his bed. It looked like he had been crying.

"I just wanted to say that I'm sorry for acting like a baby back there. I was being stupid."

"Everybody becomes a different person after something like this happens," Ryder said. "You leave your old self behind." Marley couldn't tell if he had accepted her apology or not.

"You don't need to completely lose yourself," she said, joining him on the bed. "You just need to be tougher. And maybe find new traits that you didn't know about yourself."

Ryder didn't respond.

Marley decided to change the subject. "Jake told me about your family. I'm really sorry."

"You know, witnessing something like that changed me. I'll never be the same person I was before," Ryder finally said. "A-And witnessing that made me realize that there is no hope left. There never will be. We're all going to die, sooner or later."

"There's _always_ hope," Marley said. "It may not seem like it now, but you have to trust me."

Ryder let out a humorless laugh. "How? The world's basically over. I'm sure half, or even more of the population is already wiped out."

Marley sighed. Suddenly an idea came to her. "Look, this is probably going to sound really dumb, but just think of all of this like you're in a videogame, and you only have one life left." Marley closed her eyes in anticipation, waiting for Ryder to tell her how stupid she was. Instead, he surprised her by smiling.

"That's not a bad idea, actually," he said. "It's a good way of looking at things."

"I like to try to stay positive, you know?"

Ryder nodded. "Jake and I really need something like that here. So, uh, thanks."

"No problem," Marley said. "I'm going to go help Jake make dinner."

"You like him, don't you?" Ryder said, a knowing look on his face.

"What? No, of course not," Marley said, feeling flustered.

Ryder laughed. "You're a terrible liar."

"I-I'm _not_ lying," Marley tried to convince him, but Ryder saw right through it.

"Don't be embarrassed, Jake totally has a thing for you too. But, if I were you, I wouldn't act on anything yet. All you need to focus on is practicing your knife skills. After you master the knife, we'll teach you how to use this bad boy," he said, pulling out his rifle from under the bed.

"How did you get all these guns?" she asked in astonishment.

"Jake and I raided a gun store in the city before heading here. A lot of them were already gone when we got there, so we grabbed all that was left."

"That's smart, I guess," Marley said.

"Yeah, especially when we're out on the run. We can't stay here forever."

"Right," she mumbled, thinking of Kitty. She could be anywhere, waiting for Marley to come find her.

Ryder got up from his bed and walked with Marley downstairs to the small kitchen.

"Do you think we'll find Kitty?" Marley asked him. "Tell me the truth."

Ryder sighed. "New York City is huge. I doubt we'll find her. It would be a complete miracle if we did."

"That's what I thought," Marley muttered sadly, wiping away a tear before sitting down and joining Jake and Ryder for dinner. She knew it was going to be incredibly hard, but she wasn't going to lose hope yet. She still had faith.


End file.
